Hip-hop performer to rap the science of biology at MSU

Publication Quality Photo:Right click on the photo below,then select Save Target As or Save Link As.Selecting Save Picture As or Save Image As will save the
low resolution image.

Baba Brinkman

Award-winning Canadian performance artist Baba Brinkman teaches biology by rapping, and he will soon bring his musical classroom to Mississippi State University.

The free, public concert-lecture, "The Rap Guide to Evolution," will take the stage Feb. 8 at 7 p.m. in the McComas Hall theater.

Brinkman uses rap and hip-hop to communicate scientific reasoning behind evolutionary biology. Learn more about him at http://bababrinkman.com.

His appearance is one of many open, free activities organized as part of MSU's second annual Darwin Week.

"The events are important because they promote scientific literacy in our community and foster dialogue about the importance of evolution in our everyday lives, including human health," said Diana C. Outlaw, MSU assistant professor of biological sciences.

From athletic contests to a birthday party, Darwin Week activities are designed to promote interest in science. In addition to Brinkman's performance, events include:

--Feb. 8, 2 p.m., Survival of the Fittest Dodgeball Tournament, MSU Sanderson Center. Teams with five to eight players should register by the close of business Feb. 7 at the biological sciences department office, 130 Harned Hall.

--Feb. 9, 2 p.m., Sunday at the Bluff, Mississippi University for Women's Plymouth Bluff Center, 2200 Old West Point Rd., Columbus. Jerome Goddard, MSU Extension Service professor of entomology, will present "Evolution of Parasitism: From Ticks to Bedbugs."

Sponsors for Brinkman's performance include MSU departments of Biological Sciences and Plant and Soil Sciences, the College of Forest Resources and the Institute for Genomics, Biocomputing and Biotechnology.

Darwin Week supporters are MSU's departments of Biological Sciences and Geosciences, the Dunn-Seiler Museum of Geology, the Cobb Institute of Archaeology, the Museum of Entomology and MUW's Plymouth Bluff Center.

For more information about Brinkman or Darwin Week, contact Outlaw at Doutlaw@biology.msstate.edu or Amy Moe-Hoffman, geosciences instructor, at apm105@msstate.edu.